Police says Vegas cop killers had antigovernment views

LAS VEGAS — A husband and wife who went on a deadly shooting rampage in Las Vegas harbored antigovernment beliefs and left a swastika and a "Don't tread on me" flag on the body of one of the two police officers they killed, authorities said Monday.

Jerad and Amanda Miller had been kicked off a Nevada ranch where antigovernment protesters faced down federal agents earlier this year because they were "very radical," according to Ammon Bundy, a son of rancher Cliven Bundy.

Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the Millers had ideology shared by "militia and white supremacists," including the belief that law enforcement was the "oppressor."

Police think the shootings were an isolated act, not part of a broader conspiracy to target law enforcement, McMahill said.

Ammon Bundy said by telephone that the Millers were at his father's ranch for a few days this spring before they were asked to leave by militia members for unspecified "conduct" problems.

He called the couple "very radical" and said they "did not align themselves" with the beliefs of other protesters, who thwarted a roundup of Cliven Bundy's cattle by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which wants to collect more than $1 million in grazing fees and penalties.

On Sunday, the two Las Vegas police officers were having lunch at a pizza buffet in an aging strip mall about 5 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip when the Millers fatally shot them. The attack at a CiCi's Pizza killed officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, both of whom were husbands and fathers.

The couple took the officers' guns and ammunition and put a "Don't tread on me" flag and a swastika on Beck's body, police said.

The couple then went to a Walmart about a block away. Shopper Joseph Wilcox decided to confront Jerad Miller, and Amanda Miller fatally shot him in the ribs, according to police.

As police closed in, Amanda Miller shot her husband several times with a handgun, killing him. She then shot herself in the head, police said.